Of the estimated 155 deaf residents of Nunavut, around 47 are thought to speak Inuiuuk with other deaf residents speaking ASL due to southern schooling. It is unknown how many hearing people speak the language nor how many people are monolingual. As it is a highly endangered and relatively hidden language, it has no protection under the federal or territorial governments of Canada. However, Inuiuuk exists alongside ASL interpretation within the Nunavut Legislative Assembly as of 2008. Recently, there has been increased interest in the documentation of the language which would be done through the Nunavut Council for People with Disabilities and the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC). As well, there is push to expand the interpretation/translation programme through Arctic College to include Inuiuuk.

Sign language

A sign language (also signed language) is a language which chiefly uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning, as opposed to acoustically conveyed sound patterns. This can involve simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's thoughts. They share many similarities with spoken languages (sometimes called "oral languages", which depend primarily on sound), which is why linguists consider both to be natural languages, but there are also some significant differences between signed and spoken languages.

Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages have been developed. Signing is not only used by the deaf, it is also used by people who can hear, but cannot physically speak. While they use space for grammar in a way that spoken languages do not, sign languages show the same linguistic properties and use the same language faculty as do spoken languages. Hundreds of sign languages are in use around the world and are at the cores of local deaf cultures. Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition, while others have no status at all.

Sign Language

by Bob DylanYou speak to me in sign language,As I'm eating a sandwich in a small cafeAt a quarter to three.But I can't respond to your sign language.You're taking advantage, bringing me down.Can't you make any sound?'Twas there by the bakery, surrounded by fakery.This is my story, still I'm still there.Does she know I still care?Link Wray was playing on a jukebox, I was payingFor the words I was saying, so misunderstood.He didn't do me no good.First VerseSecond Verse